The Austin guaranteed income pilot is testing how direct cash might help individuals and families with low incomes weather their unstable housing circumstances in some of the highest-poverty and most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in Austin, Texas. In September 2022, UpTogether and 10 community-based partners enrolled 135 households to receive $1,000 per month for one year.

Urban Institute was contracted to evaluate the pilot. Through six-month surveys and qualitative interviews with participants and key stakeholders, we seek to better understand

• the choices participants make around housing and how they use unrestricted cash to achieve their goals;
• how participants use social networks to achieve their goals and how these networks may be affected by the cash payments;
• participant interactions with formal helping systems, focusing on both public and private sources of support, and how cash payments affect these interactions; and 
• changes (outcomes) in income, food security and economic mobility, increased housing stability, and improved financial capacity.

Preliminary, interim, and final findings will be published to this page.